Rotting wood around door

Advertise with us
Shop deals on ebay
SpartanEpoxies
shop deals on amazon
House Repair Talk

Help Support House Repair Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
T

Tellebot

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2014
Messages
55
Reaction score
10
Our storm door blew off in a bad storm and broke the doorframe when it went. We are putting in a new door which needed to be done anyway.

Our old house doesn't accommodate modern door sizes so previous owners put up boards to shrink the doorway. The boards had rotted right at the floor and up about 7 inches.

When we pulled them off we found the floorboards right underneath are also showing signs of rot. They are...squishy and springy. They run under the sill for the front door because they are the floorboards in our enclosed porch.

So my question is what do we do about this small section? My other question is what do we need to do to prevent the new boards from rotting themselves?

I took a couple photos because I don't know if I'm explaining it very clearly. The area in question is on the left side of the doorway. View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Repair1465693096.080664.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Repair1465693126.275025.jpg
 
Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it's the Christmas lights that are causing the problem.....sorry, couldn't resist.

Flashing, there is none. Think of it this way, tuck your rain coat in your pants and wonder why you butt is wet. Water needs to shed off. Those boards have no way to send water away from the house.
 
I've thought about taking the lights down, but it's already closer to the upcoming holiday season than the last, so...at least I took down the inflatable Santa, right?

I don't really know much about flashing. Which would explain why I've lived here 3 years and never noticed there wasn't any. Can you tell me more? Is it readily available and easy enough I can install myself?
 
Why not reframe that opening so a new 36" door will fit?
Someone messed up big time when building that wall.
That door frame should have came out even with the subflooring on the outside, that way a real threshold would over hang it and keep the water out.
Then you would just add jamb extensions on the inside so the jambs are flush with the inside wall.
 
You're probably right that more needs to be done than just putting a new door in place of the old one. A lot of things are a little wacky in our 125 year old home. I know this porch was enclosed by at least 1928 because we have a photo then. So it'll be a little hard to ask whoever built the wall to come back and do it right, and we don't have the time or money to do it ourselves right now. Just buying the storm door is a little more than we have money for but it must be done.

I will now look into installing flashing. What about doing anything with those two floorboards that are showing signs of rot? Do nothing and cover them back up? Cut those sections out and replace with new wood? Something else I haven't considered?
 
Crap. Decided to remove the rotted floorboards to replace with new wood.

Good news-the rot in the floorboards appears to stop at the threshold and doesn't continue into the porch. And the boards on both sides of that section are also in good shape.

Bad news-the rot under the floorboards is pretty extensive. Pulled out wet black "dirt" by the handful that I think used to be wood. We dug down maybe 4-5 inches to what appears to be a 4x4 running parallel to the outside wall that is also in really bad shape.

So now what do I need to do???
 
From the outside showing the floorboards cut and all the wet rot removed: View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Repair1465764096.202085.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Repair1465764156.064704.jpg

Inside the crawl space. What I thought was a 4x4 from the outside is actually a 2x8 or 2x10 and a 2x a couple inches shorter, one in front of the other. The wider board (looks like it's on the bottom but is just wider and closest to the exterior wall) shows the worst signs of rot while the two farthest from the exterior feel sound and sound solid when struck:
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Repair1465764232.545640.jpg
 
It's going to be a real pain to try and remove that rotted board because of where it's located and because the runs the full width of the house. The rot seems to be concentrated between two support posts which are on either side of the door. I'm wondering if I could cut out the floorboards between the threshold of the front door and the edge to expose as much of the rotten wood as possible. I found these epoxy products which state they can be used on rotted wood: http://rotdoctor.com/products/product.html

I thought maybe I could use the CPES and the Layup and Laminating epoxy resin (or similar products from elsewhere) from above and below to stop further rot and restore strength and stability. Then replace the cut out floorboards with wood cut to size and treated, do some flashing, put in a new door and be done. Does that seem like a sound plan?
 
Tellebot said:
It's going to be a real pain to try and remove that rotted board because of where it's located and because the runs the full width of the house. The rot seems to be concentrated between two support posts which are on either side of the door. I'm wondering if I could cut out the floorboards between the threshold of the front door and the edge to expose as much of the rotten wood as possible. I found these epoxy products which state they can be used on rotted wood: http://rotdoctor.com/products/product.html

I thought maybe I could use the CPES and the Layup and Laminating epoxy resin (or similar products from elsewhere) from above and below to stop further rot and restore strength and stability. Then replace the cut out floorboards with wood cut to size and treated, do some flashing, put in a new door and be done. Does that seem like a sound plan?
Click to expand...

The rotted board you are digging at, is it visible in the photo below, if so which one?
 
It is the one that looks to be in the middle. The other two boards only go between the support posts on either side of the door and don't run the full width of the porch.
 
Tellebot said:
It is the one that looks to be in the middle. The other two boards only go between the support posts on either side of the door and don't run the full width of the porch.
Click to expand...

So it was acting as a beam holding up the floor the door frame and the window frame. As bad as it sounds it does need to be changed out and no it is not impossible.
 
Yikes I was hoping for a different answer! How would I go about replacing it? I think I'd need to add temporary supports/jacks because I'd have to remove all of the supports on top of the center support post to access this board in its entirety. Yeah? Is this still diy-able?
 
Tellebot said:
Yikes I was hoping for a different answer! How would I go about replacing it? I think I'd need to add temporary supports/jacks because I'd have to remove all of the supports on top of the center support post to access this board in its entirety. Yeah? Is this still diy-able?
Click to expand...

Anything is doable sometime easier and sometimes not so much.:hide:

Would it be safe to assume the the roof was there before the wall was built?
And the do the rafters land on that wall or are you looking at a gable over the door?
 
I would assume the roof was there first but couldn't say for sure. The roof ends at that wall-no gable or anything else.
 
Tellebot said:
I would assume the roof was there first but couldn't say for sure. The roof ends at that wall-no gable or anything else.
Click to expand...
If the roof went up first there will be a beam above all. If you can't prove that then you cut a 2x12 to fit from side to side and screw that to all the studs from side to side inside to hold the wall up and straight, remove the white board and dig out the junk and replace it.
That's the short and quick of it, sounds easy if you say it fast.:rofl:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top